Veerraju opens Pandora’s box

Marthi Subrahmanyam
Vijayawada

Creating a flutter in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), State president Somu Veerraju has sacked six district presidents and he is said to be planning to axe five more. He is learnt to have taken the decision without discussing it in the core committee meeting.

As hinted in these columns, the BJP president removed six district chiefs. ‘The Pioneer’ published a special story on December 26 stating that Somu Veerraju had decided to sack 11 district presidents.

BJP sources said that Veerraju is going to axe five more district presidents soon.

In protest against Somu Veerraju’s unilateral decision, two BJP State leaders announced their resignation. Some more BJP senior leaders will resign in the next few days, a BJP senior leader said. The sacking of six BJP district presidents created an uproar in the BJP State unit. Interestingly, all six sacked BJP district presidents belong to the Kanna Lakshminarayana group.

Immediately after Veerrajus’s action, BJP State executive committee members Reddy Narayana Rao and Chigurupati Kumara Swamy resigned from their posts. Kumaraswamy is also working as the Srikakulam district in-charge. Somu Veerraju’s unilateral decision to sack the district presidents has led to a rise in discontent against him and Sunil Deodhar.

The sacking of district presidents will lead to an uproar and simmering discontent in the BJP State unit, a senior leader predicted.

Umamaheshwara Rao was appointed as Srikakulam district president, D Parameswara Rao for Anakapalli district, Bommula Dattu for Rajahmundry district, Guttikonda Rajababu for Krishna district, Alokam Subhakar for Palnadu t district and Shiva Reddy for Prakasam district. New presidents for five more districts would be appointed in a few days, a BJP senior leader said.

However, the sacked BJP leaders maintained that Somu Veerraju has no right to remove them from their posts technically. The enrollment of membership should have begun in October 2022 but it did not happen. After completion of the membership drive, district and mandal presidents would be elected.

“How can district presidents be sacked even before the completion of the BJP State president’s tenure? Those who do not have minimum political knowledge are leading the party in AP,” a senior leader regretted.

According to reliable information, some senior BJP leaders are planning to go to Delhi to meet the high command to explain the unilateral decision of Somu Veerraju.

BJP district presidents said that organising secretary Madhukarji is not working independently and he is just following what Somu Veerraju and Sunil Dehodhar say, lamenting that he is not taking feedback from the AP BJP leaders either.

The core committee members, who are former Union ministers, state ministers, and MPs, were not informed about the sacking of district presidents. The core committee is not being given due importance by the Somu and Deodhar duo, a BJP leader slammed.

BJP senior leaders, Y Sujana Chowday, MLC Madhav, Kanna Lakshminarayana, and Daggupati Purandeswari, who are playing a vital role in the State BJP affairs, were not informed about the removal of the district president and appointment of new presidents. A group of BJP leaders is now demanding the removal of Madhukarji and the appointment of an dynamic leader to work as a liaison between the high command and state unit leaders.

Interestingly, the core committee members are also furious at Somu and Sunil duo for being ignored. Since AP affairs in-charge Muralidharan is not evincing interest in AP BJP affairs, Somu and Sunil are taking decisions unilaterally. Muralidharan is only a nominal in-charge as he was never involved in the party affairs, a BJP leader commented.

Sunil Deodhar’s supremacy has increased in AP BJP affairs and he is spending more time in AP. Muralidharan, disregarding AP affairs which have come as a boon to Sunil Deodhar, a BJP senior leader in Krishna district commented.